There's the ultimate trade off – convenience borne from a society that has evolved into busy lives that don't give us much time to stop and be still! Just like eating at McDonalds when a home cooked meal is sooooooooo much better. I am very guilty!

Yes, I hear the same thing about vinyl records, Nancy. Neil Young has been complaining about digital music for decades, saying it doesn't capture the warmth of an acoustic instrument. I would have a hard time going back to vinyl most because you have the change the record every 15 minutes and you can't play it in the car, which is the only place I get to really concentrate on music.

naperlou Glade to see at least some communities are smart enough to build under ground distribution network(s). Soon, I forsee, future "green" offerings of local generation & peaking systems much like I have described elsewhere herein. These new generators are compact, super efficient, quiet and polution free. Above all the new generators don't use fossil fuel.

It is interesting though, that the new machines being, fision, cat, or other based are all ALSO reduceable to small "on-board" HIGH energy sourcing machines, needing LITTLE or NO repetitive refueling. THIS (generates (sic)) the problem!

Those at the highest levels of world governments along with the world's scientific and black-ops communities have hit a Techno-Energy barrier based on OIL ECONOMICS and secrets that HAS TO BE RESOLVED BY WORLD GOVERNMENTS and FINANCIAL MAKKETS before hidden progress becomes visible and usable to the public.

Great point, Rob. I think in the future we as consumers will have to see how far we want to go to pursue what we personally deem as "better" since it tends to default to digital in most cases and as you so aptly pointed out, will probably do so more and more in the future, regardless of whether it has been fully evaluated or not. I know several musicians who will tell you that you can't truly feel the nuances of the music unless you are listening to an analog recording...but how much more convenient it is to use CDs...and of course I'll take a CD over my old 8 track tapes any time...

Yes, Nancy, I too have shifted to digital in many, many ways. In most cases, the move really is an improvement. The assumption now seems to be that digital is intrinsically superior to analog, at least in consumer goods. That means not every instance of an analog to digital move is likely to be evaluated to make sure it really does offer an improvement.

Rob, I think those kind of things would also benefit by usability studies. In many cases, the trade off may not be a big deal, but what is actually desired by the target audience may drive the choice. I prefer analog in many cases because it is my generation and therefore my comfort zone. I was twelve years old before I found out my name wasn't "Turn the channel," LOL. Yes, I would think analog would typically give more fine tune control on an auto dash (an analog meter can certainly show you what is happening that a digital meter may miss but how many analog meters are around) but today's generation is a digital one. Now I must admit at this point that I do love my digital camera and enjoy the ease of photoshop more than my time in the darkroom with all those chemicals!

Good points, Nancy. In another discussion on auto dash tools on Design News, there were questions about whether the move from analog controls to digital controls were an improvement. Many of those commenting viewed the switch to digital controls on everything from radio controls to cool/heat controls actually resulted less fine control for the user.

Nancy I do and don't agree with your point as a developer. Any engineer always has a number of factors they need to consider! Etc. etc. etc..... and YES WE NEED TO LET ENTHUSIASM PREVAIL !!!!....even IF IT FAILS! This allows us to move ahead and KNOW WHERE IT WILL FAIL. I rather think, IN R&D PROJECTES ONLY, one should overrun the bounds early on so as to progress FASTER. Then in preproduction you go slowly to preserve LIFE TESTED gains.

My point is that we need to be agressive until the unknown barrier is reached BEFORE stopping to asertain exactly where that barrier is. This is important ESPECIALLY when your are running AGAINST the establihsment.

Battery development is fine but new ENERGY advances would be better especially IF OIL is NOT considered. Energy solutions remain hidden around the world due to obsolete government enforced patent restrictions, useful only to thoses interesrs benefiting from same, which excludes the general public.

Industrial workplaces are governed by OSHA rules, but this isn’t to say that rules are always followed. While injuries happen on production floors for a variety of reasons, of the top 10 OSHA rules that are most often ignored in industrial settings, two directly involve machine design: lockout/tagout procedures (LO/TO) and machine guarding.

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